A Maryland man is facing possible life in prison after pleading guilty to threatening more than a dozen Jewish institutions in the Washington, D.C., area, Philadelphia and other locations in the Northeast.
Clift Seferlis of Garrett Park, Maryland, was charged with 17 counts of mailing threatening communications and eight counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs. These charges follow his arrest in June.
Seferlis entered his plea Nov. 17 before District Court Judge Mark Kearney in Philadelphia and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16. He faces a maximum penalty of 169 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $5,650,000 fine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Court documents say that between March 2024 and June 2025, the 55-year-old sent more than 40 letters and two postcards to at least 25 Jewish institutions, including synagogues, museums, community centers, schools, nonprofit organizations and a Jewish deli. Many of the letters threatened to destroy buildings or harm those inside, referencing the Israel-Hamas war, officials reported.
The Justice Department said Seferlis “intentionally obstructed and attempted to obstruct congregants and other attendees in the enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs” by sending threatening communications to synagogues or other Jewish institutions in Washington, Philadelphia, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Fairfax, Falls Church, Hagerstown and Brookline, Massachusetts. The offenses against four of the synagogues included the threatened use of a dangerous weapon, fire or explosives.
“Over the past 18 months, nearly every Jewish institution in the Greater Washington area, along with many others along the East Coast” has received Seferlis’ letters, according to a statement by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s security arm JShield.
Written on a typewriter, many of Seferlis’ letters contained newspaper clippings of articles about the war in Israel and Gaza. A letter to a Gaithersburg synagogue included references to Kristallnacht, the 1938 antisemitic attacks across Nazi Germany and parts of Austria, prosecutors said.
In the letter, Seferlis wrote, “You do know Kristallnacht is very strong and sooner than later there is going to be PLENTY of broken glass at your synagogue.”
A letter to another institution asked rhetorically, “And you wonder why that nice young couple were gunned down in front of the museum in DC,” referring to the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers near the Capital Jewish Museum in May.
Another letter, addressed to a Rockville Jewish school, included an article about an Israeli attack in Lebanon. The letter read, “Does the image mean anything to you? Are you proud to be part of without doubt the most hated diaspora on earth, one with no end to their cruelty? Of course you are not moved by this. You are a jew. Perhaps it might be more effective when the school is in ruins.”
A letter to a rabbi of a Washington synagogue asked, “Are you concerned for the well being of your congregants? … You might want to be.”
The case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia, along with FBI Baltimore, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Montgomery County Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greenbelt, Maryland.
